Homebody is the Queer Freaky Friday We All Need

Director Joseph Sackett’s body-transfer comedy Homebody screens at Los Angeles’s Laemmle Theaters on November 11, followed by a digital Fandor release on December 6.

Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, Homebody went on to screen at NewFest, where Colby Minifie was awarded “Best Performance.”

Minifie (The Boys) stars in this genderqueer fantasy, expanded from Joseph Sackett’s 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. In it, young Johnny discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit into the body of Melanie, his beloved babysitter. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, buys obscene amounts of candy, and has awkward run-ins with her friends, clients, and partners.

Homebody is Sackett’s directorial feature debut. In 2020, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

The film also stars Maria Dizzia (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Zoe Chao (The Afterparty), Tre Ryder (After the Wedding), and Whitmer Thomas (The Civil Dead). 

“As clever as it is sweet, Homebody is a progressively modern riff on movies like Big or Being John Malkovich,” says Aaron Hillis, Director of Programming at Cinedigm.